An economic depression cast a deep pall over much of the new nation early in the 1780s.

Along with attempts by many states at heavy taxation to repay their war debts, there were
widespread demands by creditors in the form of debt suits and resulting farm foreclosures.

Three consecutive bad crop years hurt southern farmers. The common people–overwhelmingly
farmers, laborers, and artisans, who had received almost-worthless debt certificates for their
arduous army service and had little else but their brawn, farms, animals, and tools–could not pay.

A merchant from Pittsburgh lamented, in 1787, that “Very few in this Town can procure Money to go to market.
And as to pay ... a Debt it is out of the question.”

That same summer, as the Constitutional Convention was meeting nearby, Philadelphia merchant Stephen Collins noted
that “times have grown so bad, money so scarce that amazing quantities of real estate of every kind are selling at both public and private sale.” Similar conditions prevailed everywhere in the new nation.